Portions of the Arizona and Grand canals on the north side of the Salt River will be closed and drained over the next month for annual maintenance and construction activities.

The maintenance and repair activities will impact some of SRP’s northside irrigation customers who will not receive water from the canals during the dry-up, an SRP press release explains.

Crews with hand nets and specially constructed truck-mounted water tanks will be used to relocate the white amur fish during the first few days of the project. Crews will be operating heavy equipment and trucks after the fish removal to pull silt and dirt from the canal and move debris to large dump trucks throughout the dry-up.

The canal dryup will go from Monday, Jan. 8 through Wednesday, Feb. 7 on portions of the Arizona and Grand canals in west Phoenix and Glendale. There will be signs posted on the Arizona Canal from 43rd and 59th avenues between Thunderbird Road and Peoria Avenue where the canal banks will be closed to all traffic including bikes and pedestrians.

The closures will also impact both sides of the Grand Canal banks between 27th and 59th avenues along Osborne Road.

This northside dry-up will result in increased construction traffic on canal banks as SRP crews work to remove silt, replace concrete lining, and repair gates.

SRP is responsible for keeping its canal system in operating condition during normal water deliveries. Canal dry-ups allow SRP as well as other utilities and municipalities to perform construction and maintenance activities in and around the canals.

SRP crews also will use the dry-up to examine the canals and underwater structures to look for evidence of invasive adult quagga mussels.